More than Seven

M 45 The Pleiades

Everyone has seen it. Many have sketched it. And recently I discovered in all the times I have observed it and admired its beauty I have never attempted a sketch of the Pleiades. I fail to get that great dark sky view from my location but the eyepiece shows the sisters in their blue white.
This is how I see it in a small Dobsonian telescope from my poor viewing location near Chicago .

Sketch drawn using a 4.25″ f/5 Dobsonian telescope and a 24mm eyepiece for 22 power magnification.
Partly cloudy, Seeing 6/10, Transparency 7/10
Date, Time and Place November 28, 2010, 12:00am – 12 40am, Oak Forest, Illinois
Inverted sketch with HB and B graphite pencils on white copy paper. Some star brightness adjustments with Microsoft Paint.

Frank McCabe

3 thoughts on “More than Seven”

  1. Hi Frank,

    Nice picture done with a modest scope from a town location. Nicely shows what can be done with such gear from what many consider a location not capable of rendering a decent vista.

    Your sketch has a nice ‘electric’ feel to it. This cluster is such a sack-full-of-diamonds, that the challenge lies in duplicating this energy.

    Good one, mate!

    Alex M.

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